Helix is an intense thriller about a team of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control who travel to a high-tech research facility in the Arctic to investigate a possible disease outbreak, only to find themselves pulled into a terrifying life-and-death struggle that holds the key to mankind’s salvation or total annihilation. “With its well-drawn characters, taut drama, and incredible production team, we couldn’t be more excited to see this intense thrill-ride of a series come to life,” said Mark Stern Helix is expected to begin production early in 2013 to debut later this year. Ron D Moore told me at the SyFy Upfront Event that the series is yet to be cast though it will begin casting soon.He says its more of an ensemble piece with no clear lead yet but as they work in the writers room one may emerge.

HELIX AT SDCC 2013

RON D MOORE ROUNDTABLE

Ron Moore:”Cameron Porsandeh wrote the pilot script. It was developed by Cameron and Linda Obst at Sony Television. They spent about a year developing it. And then they called me since I have a deal at Sony and said, “We’d like you to take a look at this to executive produce.” And I literally said no.I didn’t even want to read it because it wasn’t a genre or a thing or concept I was interested in.But they just kept coming back and said, “You should really read this.”I finally relented and read it.And it was a page turner. I keep turning the pages literally wanting to see what happened next. By the end of the script, I wanted to see the next episode.I realized if you could convince me and if I’m hooked then there’s a show in here and that’s when I signed on board.” More

Kyra Zagorsky And Steve Maeda Q And A

Steve, the setting of being up in the Arctic really seems to work well for this kind of thing. It makes you think of, like, “The Thing,” and stuff like that. Kind of talk philosophically about why a setting like this works so well visually and emotionally for this kind of story.

Steve Maeda: Sure. It’s a setting that is great for us because it’s not the newest setting under the sun. It seems familiar enough, but I think we’re doing a pretty interesting spin on it.And what works for us really well is that it lends itself to a very claustrophobic environment because you can go outside but only for brief periods of time. It’s really dangerous. The weather is horrible, as I’m sure people who are in the Midwest and the East Coast right now can relate to.

And what it does is it forces you to be inside most of the time and that’s how we really saw this. That’s how Cameron, who wrote the pilot script, really envisioned the thing to begin with, which was a contained environment, someplace, you know, it’s almost like being set on a spaceship where you’re trapped inside with, you know, unseen horrors and then there’re all sorts of human problems as well that develop from that. So it really lends itself to the series as a whole. More

HELIX SET VISIT Q AND A

Mark Stern: You have a unique background. How did you come to this script and how did you meet up with Ron (Moore) and what was that relationship

Cameron Porsandeh: As I said to a few of your prior to this I was an economist at the World Bank Federal Reserve.What I primarily concerned myself with was international development with all different countries. I loved what I did.And I think what I did was very important actually.There was one experience when I was in Ethopia. There was a boy watching TV and the boy was cleary gay in a community where that was not tolerated.I know this because multiple people pointed him out.What was interesting was that this boy was watching Will And Grace on television.You could see his connection with that character.At that moment my only thought was, “There are all kinds of ways to make the world a better place,one of them is politics.Economics is super important to, I really believe that.So are the Arts and entertaining people has tremendous value too.” That’s what pushed me towards television.

In terms of this particular story, when I first started thinking about Helix, there were a few things that I wanted to do.I wanted to tell a viral story. I think each generation has a fear.The one before us was that computers were going to take over the world.Before that were nuclear weapons, but for our generation viruses are in the human zeitgeist as a threat.And unlike the two things I just alluded to, viruses are everywhere.They’re everywhere in this room, they’re inside of us right now.I think that was terrifying and I still do. I knew that I wanted to set it in an exotic location.And I don’t know how many of you have been to the Artic Circle, in my opinion, the closest place to the moon on Earth.It’s desolate.It’s hauntingly beautiful.And it’s mysterious.I knew that I wanted to create a facility that..when I was a kid, I was obsessed with labyrinths. When you walk through this facility tour, I think Brad Turner (Executive Producer who was also our guide that day) did an excellent job. The mythology of the base is also hand in hand with the mythology of the show.That was super important to me.The final thing was that I wanted it to be a fast paced story. So we built into to it that one episode equals one day.What I loved about that is that we’re going to start our show and end our show in less than two weeks. Those are the bones of the story.Once I had the story and the structure thought out, we brought on Ron Moore.At Sony they said if you could work with anyone who would you want to work with ? And I said Ron Moore. They sent it to Ron and he was very gracious and he wanted to be involved. What he brought to it was quite masterfully in my opinion was, he really constructed with me an overall mythology.Not only would it connect our first season but all of our seasons.It was akin to what I responded to Battlestar Galactica in a beautiful way.Then we pitched it to Mark (Stern). And to Mark’s credit, this is an unsual show.He took a chance on it and I’m really grateful.I’ve said that many times. More

HELIX CAST BIO’S

BILLY CAMPBELL – DR ALAN FARRAGUT

Billy Campbell stars as Dr. Alan Farragut in the Syfy original series, “Helix,” which follows a team of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control as they investigate a deadly disease outbreak.

Campbell is best known for starring opposite Sela Ward in the beloved ABC drama “Once and Again.” In the series, Campbell portrayed single father Rick Sammler, a role for which he earned a 1999 Golden Globe Award nomination in the Best Actor in a Drama Series category, as well as a People’s Choice Award in the Favorite Male Performer in a New Television Series category. The show was also nominated in 1999 for a Golden Globe for Best Drama Series. More

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A preview of Hot Tub Time Machine Two and The Lazarus Effect with comments from the actors involved. Interviews include JLA Throne Of Atlantis producer James Tucker. Emily Hampshire comments on a new two parter for 12 Monkeys and her character's status going forward. Spotlight has Walking Dead show runner Scott Gimple

SYFY CHANNEL NEWS

TONIGHT'S FACE OFF

DRESSED TO KILL

MARK CUBAN TO BECOME THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WITH ANN COULTER ASSUMING DUTIES OF VICE PRESIDENT IN SHARKNADO 3

A new Administration is taking office before January 2017! Syfy and The Asylum today announced that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban (Shark Tank) will play the President of the United States with political commentator/author Ann Coulter joining him as Vice President in the eagerly anticipated original movie Sharknado 3.Previously announced cameos in the latest installment of the global pop culture sensation will include Bo Derek as May, the mother of April (Tara Reid); Jerry Springer, appearing as Mr. White, a manic tourist; *NSYNC singer Chris Kirkpatrick as a pool lifeguard, and Chris Jericho, who will portray Bruce the roller coaster ride operator.Also joining the cast of Sharknado 3 will be Ryan Newman, who will play April and Fin’s (Ian Ziering) daughter Claudia Sheperd, with Jack Griffo portraying Claudia’s friend, Billy.Anthony C. Ferrante will once again direct, based on an original screenplay by Thunder Levin.

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